What is God and what are His qualities? What is the harm of worshipping non-living things as God? Can God do everything? Can He do injustice also?
Read God in the question– What is the most important thing for us to know? Are there other things also, knowledge of which is must for us? What are they?
Adjectives of God showing some of His qualities
1. Omniscient– God is very-very intelligent. Work speaks of intelligence of doer. Using our conscience, we can say that more intelligence is needed in making a television than in making a clay-pot. On the same basis, we can easily say that in making universe, in making laws for appropriate movement of universe, in blending and un-blending souls and bodies in accordance with a perfectly defined systems et cetra. requires immense intelligence.
Even the most intelligent men on Earth look at the human body with a surprise. Making the frame of the body with bones, fine web of nerves, covering of bones and nerves by layers of skin, placement of organs like liver, heart and lungs, structuring of the very delicate organs like eyes, system of controlling the temperature of body, excretion of wastes of the body, co-ordination among different elements of the body like earth, water, fire, air and ether, system for distribution of energy to different parts of the body, creation of different subject for different sense organs, creation of system of very large magnitude for sustenance of living beings et cetra point towards a very intelligent being. In addition to this, creation of mineral resources beneath the Earth, creation of huge variety of vegetation, creation of different celestial bodies et cetra cannot be done by anyone other than God.
Looking at this universe, to call him an omniscient is not out of tune.
2. All powerful – By the word ‘all powerful’ we mean, one who can do anything and everything. According to this meaning – God can do injustice also. He may or may not give fruit of any action. He can act contrary to His attributes. But as per Maharishi Dayanand, God is called ‘all powerful’ for the reason that for creation and dissolution of this huge universe containing great many Suns, giving fruits of actions of souls et cetra, He takes help of none. He is capable of doing all His works with His great power. According to this meaning, He cannot do anything contrary to His attributes. This is the correct meaning of the word ‘all powerful’. ‘All-powerful’ does not at all mean undisciplined.
3. Justice-doer – All the works of God are very appropriate and just. One of the works of God is to give fruits of actions of souls. He gives the fruits of actions of souls in the right or just quantity, at the right time and at the right place. To be able to do justice, three things are required. Firstly, one must have thorough knowledge of the act done. Secondly, one must have power to get the decision implemented and thirdly, one must not have any self interest in the work. In the world, we see that one, who meets all these three requirements, cannot do injustice and against this, one who meets less than these three requirements cannot do justice. For God is omniscient, all powerful and does not have any requirement, to consider Him an injustice-doer will be foolishness.
4. Kind– By the word ‘Kind’ people generally refer to a person who lets a wrong-doer go unharmed. Contrary to this, by the word ‘justice’ we mean to punish a wrong-doer appropriately. As such, meaning of ‘Kind’ and ‘Just’ are considered opposite to each other. But ‘Kind’ and ‘Just’ mean the same thing. Wanting the others at the mental level to be free from pain is ‘Kindness’ and to punish the guilty for the purpose of bringing freedom to others from pain is called ‘justice’. As such, purpose of both ‘kindness’ and ‘justice’ is same, that is, to make others free from pain. To let a guilty go unharmed is like bringing pain to thousands of good people. When not punishing a single guilty person is equivalent to bringing pain to thousands, then how can the meaning of ‘kindness’ prevalent in today’s society be right?
5. All pervading and formless – Let us apply a simple reasoning. This universe cannot be created, cannot move and cannot be dissolved if its creator or controller or dissolver, that is, God is not present everywhere. These things like creation of universe et cetra are not possible if, God is present at a particular place only. It is not possible without the attribute of all pervasiveness for God to be omniscient and controller of everything. We see that pervasiveness is possible only if, pervader is subtler than the thing in which it pervades. Souls are very subtle. Therefore, God to be present in souls, must be subtler than souls. Now, we all know that because of formlessness of soul, it never decays. Then, how a thing which is present in formless soul can have form? Because of His all pervasiveness, He can do everything without a body. God is present everywhere like ‘aakaash’ It is generally translated as ether, which is wrong. So God can be called very-very subtle as well as very-very big.
6. One – Read the question–God is called by a number of names like Shiv, Ganesh, Ganpati, Brahma, Vishnu, Laxmi, Saraswati, Mahadev et cetra. Is a single God called by different names or are there many Gods?
7. Blissful – Regarding the three eternal entities- Nature is said to be ‘Sat’ (Here, ‘Sat’ refers to existence), soul is said to be ‘Sat’ and ‘Chit’ (Here, Chit refers to liveliness) and God is said to be ‘Sat’, ‘Chit’ and ‘Aanand’ where, Aanand refers to bliss. Bliss has no anonym. Bliss can only be felt and cannot be explained through words. Soul lacks bliss. For enjoying bliss, soul has to approach God. The distance between soul and God is not of time or place but it is of knowledge. Distance between two things can be of time or of place or of knowledge. Let us take an example. Father may be away from the Son because both of them are living at different places – this is distance between them because of place. If, father had died, he existed in a time different from that of his son – this is distance between them because of time. If, father and son are present at the same place and time and they do not recognize each other – this is distance between them because of knowledge. Soul can approach God for enjoying His bliss through ‘Upaasanaa’ or meditation.
Related topic
–What is the methodology to approach God?
8. Beginning-less –
Read the question–Does God take birth?
9. Base of all – It is necessary for everything to have a base. Looking at man’s creation like buildings, bridges et cetra, we notice that everything has a base. Without base, we cannot think of any creation. Applying the same logic, we come to a conclusion that this universe, which contains many Suns and Moons, too, should have a base. The base of God’s creation, that is, universe is God Himself. In man’s case, he remains different from his creation but God does not separates Himself from His creation rather, He pervades it.
10. Endless, eternal, fearless and great – He never perishes or comes to an end. As such, he is called endless and eternal. One is afraid of only from more powerful being. But because there is no one more powerful than God, He is fearless. Because, God is a truth, which does not change because of time and circumstances, He is called changeless. God’s attributes and works are so great that soul is bound to go motionless on knowing them. No one is like Him. As such, He is called great.
Works of God
Works of God can be divided into four categories:
- Creation and dissolution of this universe.
- Controlling the universe created by Him by executing His unchanging laws.
- Bringing His knowledge to light for the welfare of souls.
- Giving justified, that is, in the right magnitude, in the right time and at the right place, fruits of actions of the souls.
He is so great that He can perform all His works without any external help of any sort.
Harm in Worshiping Non-living Things as God
Purpose of human life is development of soul and for development of soul, communion with God is the only mean. When soul approaches God by engrossing itself in God and only God, then that sort of closeness is called ‘communion’ or ‘Upaasanaa’. ‘Upaasanaa’ washes off impurities of soul and brings it closer to God by instilling in soul the attributes of God. But, if instead of God, who is omniscient, all-pervading et cetra, we worship nature or different idols, then naturally we are to obtain their attributes. Three folds of worship are Stuti, that is, appreciation, Praarthana, that is, prayer and Upaasanaa, that is, communion. One famous saying is-we become like the company we have. In idols, there is a complete absence of attributes of God. As such, development of soul is not at all possible with idol-worship.